Rungwe

Africa was a true terra incognito. Even as late as the 19th century, much of the interior remained unknown. It is strange how we could have forgotten our ancient roots. It had become the ‘dark continent’, a name that could only have been invented by someone who had never been there. They missed out on…

By any other name: the story of the word ‘volcano’

“I remember this mountain. Shaped like a cone, smoke coming out from the top and molten rock flowing down the side. Can’t think of the name – v-something – hold on – no, lost it.” This sounds implausible. Names of uncommon things can easily be forgotten; we have all done it. But not volcano! Most…

The forgotten volcanoes of Chad Part I

In this part of ”Off the beaten track” we will well and truly go off the beaten track, or perhaps we are getting to one of the most beaten tracks on the planet. You will have to be the judges of that. In this part volcanism takes on a scale of grandeur on an unprecedented…

The forgotten volcanoes of Libya

In my last article I wrote about the Turkana, volcanism that is part of the Great African Rift. But unbeknownst to most this is just one of several rift systems in Africa that are tearing the continent apart. In this article we will be making an initial contact with an even larger, younger and far…

Terrae Nova: the Eye of Africa

The previous post on Venus described a peculiar type of volcanic construct called a corona, unique to Venus. This blog is read by knowledgeable people with a somewhat critical attitude to authority, while at the same time having a strong respect for experts [For UK readers: see footnote], and this statement was immediately questioned. A…